South African R series of weapons information thread (lots of pictures)

[WILDCARD]

Thanks hagar i should be able to source one locally allready nusy negotiating with someone.

 

[WCC]

Thanks hagar i should be able to source one locally allready nusy negotiating with someone.

Great stuff. They have definitely become harder to find during the last year or so. Let me know if you don't come right as a guy at our club has one that he doesn't have any more use for.

 

[lcastillo]

How reliable did the 50 round magazines feed? Did the SADF only use 50 round magazines operations out of vehicles or did they actually carry these in the field? I seem like such a long magazine if you need to hit the dirt and fire. Love to hear from our SA buddies about it. Thanks Lou

 

[Tongo]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdCvoZQMwM0

 

[WCC]

How reliable did the 50 round magazines feed? Did the SADF only use 50 round magazines operations out of vehicles or did they actually carry these in the field? I seem like such a long magazine if you need to hit the dirt and fire. Love to hear from our SA buddies about it. Thanks Lou

Lou, they were very reliable and no less so than any of the shorter 35rd steel mags. The only problem were dents on the flat sides causing the follower to get stuck, but I've seen a few drop without issues or malfunctions. It also had to be a more serious dent and/or at the right spot.

Most guys carried the 35rd mags and they were also freely available. The 50rd mags were mostly used by Koevoet in the Casspirs and also the Ratel guys.

 

[Ady]

I have had no problems with my 50 round mag in competitions so far.

 

[AZAK]

Hi, I'm new member here, looking forward to being an R4 owner as soon as Jeff's done with it.

I'm hoping one of the members can inform me about this red dot scope, which I understand was used with the R-series rifles. How it mounts to the rifle is not clear to me. A picture showing one mounted would be useful.

Thanks!

edit: Another question for my build, were the bipods on the nutria-painted rifles also painted brown?

 

[Opsmedic1985]

generally we were issued with one 50 round mag in the South African Infantry (in mid 80's) and the rest was 35 round mags, the 50 round mag was too long generally - but we carried to back the LMG guys up, in theory when they were changing barrels - or reloading, or clearing a stoppage the idea was we could keep suppressing fire going with the larger capacity mag. Simply though it was impossible to shoot properly in the prone position on on the bipod with the larger mag, mostly I carried 6 x 35 round mags (with 30 in each) as the SADF 5.56 came in 30 round little boxes and then carried a plastic bag with another 300 in my H-frame. We also only loaded the 35 round mags with 30 to stop the spring from being compressed too much over a extended period in your chest webbing, plus you knew it was 30 as you used one little box per mag.

 

[recovering]

That's pretty interesting. It's common in the US Infantry to only load 28 rounds per magazine for similar reason as you mentioned. I always thought of the 35 round magazine as a bit of an oddity, but a nice feature regardless. The length isn't so bad that it makes the magazine awkward and I'd readily buy into 35 round mags for an AR. I use 42 round mags for my AUG and think they are great.

 

[Ady]

Hi, I'm new member here, looking forward to being an R4 owner as soon as Jeff's done with it.

I'm hoping one of the members can inform me about this red dot scope, which I understand was used with the R-series rifles. How it mounts to the rifle is not clear to me. A picture showing one mounted would be useful.

Thanks!

edit: Another question for my build, were the bipods on the nutria-painted rifles also painted brown?

I have never seen a scope like that mounted to a R series rifle and i can't tell you where it would be mounted. Scopes for the R rifles i have seen are mounted onto the dustcover or with a side mount that bolted onto the receiver. I have however seen something similar mounted to a locally made 9mm carbine called a BXP (Looks much like an Uzi).

The bipods i have seen on nutria painted rifles were not painted brown, they were black.

 

[Opsmedic1985]

up until 1996 when I handed back my R5, and had troops with R4's - I havent seen a sight like that - so it might be post 1996 when these came out, I have once used a night sight (horrible large thing that had green night view) in the mid 80's in Angola - this however came with its own R4/5 dust cover mounted on it - you removed the normal one, and mounted this with the sight already fixed on. Also - all of the bipods we used were black metal - never saw one painted in 12 years of service.

 

[Ruddiger]

I had a similar Armson which mounted to the gas tube as shown:

 

[adipose]

I had a similar Armson which mounted to the gas tube as shown:

Awesome Walt; as this picture was posted awhile back from someone saying this was a R4' which it is an R5.

Just need to figure out where to get the mounts

 

[AZAK]

I appreciate the insights. All I can say for sure about the sight's provenance is that its coming from a forum member in SA and its his impression that they were used back in the day. Figuring out a mount consistent with the pic above will be a challenge, but I ordered one anyway - this is what one looks like NOS/NIW:

I could use others' help with a choice I need to make. My R4 will be a late production clone, and all the key parts are consistent with that according to Jeff, including the gas block. I need to choose one of two bipod styles, can someone please advise on which of the two types (differentiated by footpad casting marks) I should use?

This one (I think just one foot is stamped)?

Or this one (shows both feet)?

 

[Mr Folgers]

I could use others' help with a choice I need to make. My R4 will be a late production clone, and all the key parts are consistent with that according to Jeff, including the gas block. I need to choose one of two bipod styles, can someone please advise on which of the two types (differentiated by footpad casting marks) I should use?

This one (I think just one foot is stamped)?

You will want to use the Diamond-marked bipod for a late clone.
VF is Vector Firearms -- they were acquired by Denel some time in the late 90's I believe. Early clones should use standard IMI painted bipods.

 

[sunnybean]

I had a similar Armson which mounted to the gas tube as shown:

And here is Ruddiger's old sight...



Jeff should have the parts kit I purchased from you a few years ago restored and back to me soon. Apparently he just needs a shipment of poop brown. I'm pretty excited to see this gun finished after all this time.

 

[WILDCARD]

Not so good sight of a R5 rifle:

 

[AresShrike]

Really cool pictures!
Thanks so much to all you guys for posting these!

 

[AZAK]

For anyone who wondered, this particular SA-made Armson sight turns out to be a dedicated design for the Milkor Mk1 40mm grenade launcher. You can find pictures of the Mk1 with this sight installed. I suspect the Armson was used in early production, other sights were used over time.

 

[lcastillo]

Finally Have the Trio

Hey guys,

I have posted pictures of South African R-Series rifle gas tubes in the past, But here finally I have R4, R5 and R6 gas tubes side by side so you can see the size differences. I seem like just yesterday I found my interest for Galil's and R-Series rifles grow, but it has really been since 2011. Man! time flies. Anyways enjoy the pictures.

The first gas-tube is for the R4. Yes it is in poo-brown (Nutria) it came directly from SA via my friend Ruski5181. It has to be my prized gas-tube because Ady hates Nutria as he takes every occasion to tell us about uke on UziTalk.